Everything that entrepreneur and lawyer by training Jeanie Milbauer has done is connected to service and mission, she said.
The Washington, D.C., resident co-founded a nonprofit organization geared toward Jewish women, and later, launched an online store that aims to spread the “joy and meaning of Shabbat.”
Oneg, Milbauer’s online store, offers handmade, contemporary Jewish ritual objects, guidebooks and conversation starters designed to make Shabbat accessible and meaningful, according to the website.
In the past year, Milbauer, a member of Adas Israel Congregation, has sold nearly a quarter of a million dollars worth of Shabbat-related goods, including candle holders, challah covers and Seder plates. She’s also looking to expand to special occasions other than Shabbat. The business hasn’t always been this large — Milbauer started Oneg in the basement of her District home.
“I founded something that I wanted when I was raising my kids,” said the mother of three, who divides her time between Northwest Washington and New York.
When her children — now in their 20s — were younger, Milbauer said she “didn’t know where to start” in terms of setting up meaningful Shabbat dinners.
“I was too embarrassed to ask,” she said. “In the early days, there was not much [easily accessible] material out there, and so I created what I wanted [back then]. I wanted to not only do Shabbat dinners with my kids and family, knowing it would be very meaningful, I wanted to really understand what I was doing and how to do it.”
So she created Oneg, which she said embodies ease and accessibility, guidance and beauty.
“We’re inviting you in and giving you guiding material to set the conditions to make rituals such as Shabbat … setting the conditions to have a meaningful experience, no matter where you’re starting in your practice,” Milbauer said. “This is for everybody.”
Her own Jewish journey has been a learning curve. Raised in Westchester County, New York, Milbauer grew up attending a Reform temple.
“We did what everybody did in those days: went to a synagogue,” she said. “A lot of us were not brought up with Jewish literacy; we were brought up with social action as the backdrop to our Judaism.”
Milbauer, who attended Hebrew school, Sunday school and Jewish summer camps, said she always felt connected to her Judaism. She lived in Israel on a kibbutz the summer after high school and studied abroad at Tel Aviv University for a semester.
“Then when it was time to raise my children, [I] became very aware that I really didn’t understand all that it meant to be Jewish,” Milbauer recalled. “In those days, I found it hard to get a comprehensive answer to all of my questions and my love of learning and my thirst for knowledge and my excitement over the study of Torah, so I ended up piecing it together.”
She joined Adas Israel Congregation with her young family and became involved with her local Chabad, TheSHUL of the Nation’s Capital, studying with Rebbetzin Nechama Shemtov. Milbauer took classes through Chabad, Aish Center of Greater Washington and other outreach organizations focused on Torah and text-based learning, Jewish ritual and living a Jewish life.
She alluded to the biblical “tree of knowledge.” “Once I started to actually learn about [and] become more Jewishly literate, I realized the wealth and treasure that Judaism brought to my life,” Milbauer said. “I wanted it and had to make it happen.”
Milbauer incorporated her Jewish knowledge into a set of conversation cards, which are tied to each week’s Torah portion — the product she’s most proud of. “Judaism is so rich, but it can also be overwhelming,” she said. “So over time, it’s there for you to see every week, every year.”
“The conversation cards are written in a beautiful way that evokes conversation and connection,” Milbauer said, adding that she put a lot of thought into the questions and consulted both rabbis and friends.
“They’re tied to an immutable holiday, which is Shabbat. We bring [the cards] out. It’s one beautiful question, and every dinner is something new and special and wonderful that you never expected because of those cards,” she said.
Her favorite card is one that asks about the origin of a person’s Hebrew name. “I’ve learned so many things about my friends, just with the prompt, that we might never have gotten to [otherwise],” Milbauer said.
A self-described creative, Milbauer appreciates the beauty and the idea behind the conversation cards, one of the many items that come in Oneg’s Signature Shabbat Box.
“[This] gives other people the opportunity to also lean in and … do it easily,” she said. “I’m proud that other people have these tools with the conversation cards and [our Signature Shabbat] Box.”
Aside from managing her business, Milbauer is the co-founder and founding president of Momentum Unlimited, which has brought more than 23,000 women to Israel on mission trips since 2009.
She serves on the boards of Maccabi USA, Tikkun Olam Makers and The Lehrhaus, and supports dozens of other causes, including the nonprofit Spill the Honey, a national Black-Jewish alliance. Milbauer co-founded the Jewish Women’s Renaissance Project and Milton Gottesman Jewish Day School’s annual Yitzhak Rabin Memorial Lecture. She also helped launch Aura, a networking group for Jewish women professionals in D.C.
Above all else, Oneg remains her passion.
“[It’s] what I think everybody is seeking right now,” Milbauer said. “There’s such a hunger for Jewish education and knowledge and gathering and connection, and we all need time to put into rest and mindfulness, and that’s what Shabbat does for us.”
